Anybody know anything about growing cotton?
#21
Originally Posted by EskapetheNorm
Hubby is doing some field trials in the new varieties of cotton ... he said most commercial cotton will be planted in May.
#23
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Victorian Sweatshop
Posts: 863
Man o man, what I know about growing cotton. We were the last of the proud but dirt poor families. I planted the seeds, hoed the weeds, and picked sacks full of it by age 5.
Lack of rain can ruin the crop. Pesticide resistant bugs can destroy the plants in the field. It needs lots of fetilizer and a good season. The fields have to be rotated because cotton takes so much out of the soil. And picking scatches your hands, the suns burns you brown as walnuts and you gotta watch out for snakes.
I learned to keep my head down and keep picking. No matter how long the row was you got there with a sack to be weighed.
Nope, don't want to ever do that again.
Lack of rain can ruin the crop. Pesticide resistant bugs can destroy the plants in the field. It needs lots of fetilizer and a good season. The fields have to be rotated because cotton takes so much out of the soil. And picking scatches your hands, the suns burns you brown as walnuts and you gotta watch out for snakes.
I learned to keep my head down and keep picking. No matter how long the row was you got there with a sack to be weighed.
Nope, don't want to ever do that again.
#24
Originally Posted by clsurz
I do know there have been times when the government will pay farmers not to plant a certain year. We have farmers here in Georgia who have been paid by the federal government not to grow tobacco or cotton some years.
#26
would like to try growing a cotton plant indoors.......... where can I get seeds?
as for the price of cotton quilting fabric? when was the last time you saw prices go down???????? even if the 'beginning product' price goes down, we never see a drop on our end......... thankfully i have a large stash.
as for the price of cotton quilting fabric? when was the last time you saw prices go down???????? even if the 'beginning product' price goes down, we never see a drop on our end......... thankfully i have a large stash.
#27
Funny: My in-laws are from Southern Arizona,and when the family was young they picked cotton. All my BIL's insist my MIL picked 200 lbs of cotton both the day before and after she gave birth to her 13th child!(usually just after the birth of our own children complaining about us not holding up our end of things).
But she confided to the girls that she spent 3 weeks in bed before, and 4 after due to complications. In the '40's when she was having her babies, women normally spent 2 weeks in the hospital after having babies.
And just as soon as I get the cows milked and the corn planted tomorrow morning, I will start planting my cotton. Yeah, right!
But she confided to the girls that she spent 3 weeks in bed before, and 4 after due to complications. In the '40's when she was having her babies, women normally spent 2 weeks in the hospital after having babies.
And just as soon as I get the cows milked and the corn planted tomorrow morning, I will start planting my cotton. Yeah, right!
#29
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 729
laugh all you want try picking the seeds out of cotton by hand not easy i know as we lived in arkansas when i was growing up as mom used it for batting in quilts was i ever glad to leave arkansa and move to iowa at age 19 never would i go back there life was hard for my parents but they were the greatest
#30
Lots of info from our end of the world at the link below. Seems as though there will be a good crop in spite of the floods. I found it interesting reading.
http://www.cottonaustralia.com.au/
http://www.cottonaustralia.com.au/
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